Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Mason Zadan is a leading researcher at the frontier of soft robotics and advanced functional materials, with a focus on creating battery-free, wirelessly powered systems. His work centers on integrating liquid metal elastomer composites and liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) to enable stretchable thermoelectric generators (TEGs) and shape-memory actuators. Zadan’s major contributions include demonstrating the first soft, stretchable TEGs capable of harvesting body heat for wearable electronics—a breakthrough cited over 168 times—and developing LCE actuators that combine energy harvesting with shape memory for untethered soft robots. He has also pioneered wireless actuation methods, such as radio-frequency and non-line-of-sight heating, to control soft robots without onboard batteries or rigid components, as seen in his 2023 work on navigating robots through wireless heating. With over 550 total citations across his most-cited papers, Zadan’s innovations in 3D-printed liquid metal embedded elastomers and soft tactile sensing skins have advanced the field of autonomous, electronics-free robotics. His notable achievements include frequency-selective actuation of LCEs, enabling precise control in confined environments, positioning him as a key figure in the next generation of soft, energy-autonomous systems.